Florida Times Union – Large Development Near Town Center

Roger Bull’s Sunday Notebook: Large development planned near Town Center

Sat, Nov 22, 2014 @ 7:38 pm | updated Sat, Nov 22, 2014 @ 8:09 pm

Groundbreaking for the 300-unit Loree Apartments on A.C. Skinner Parkway is planned for January.

Eckstein Investments of Jacksonville Beach has some big projects in the works. First, there’s the two apartment complexes going in on A.C. Skinner Parkway, southwest of the Southside/Butler boulevards intersection.

We wrote about the first of those, called the Loree, this summer. Groundbreaking for that three-story, 300-unit complex is planned for January, said Mark Farrell of Killashee Investments, who is acting as broker/consultant on the project.

Another 300-unit complex, this one four stories, is planned next to the other one. Construction should start in the third quarter next year, Farrell said.

But the bigger news is a few miles farther east. Eckstein has 115 acres under contract on Gate Parkway in the southwest corner of the Butler/I-295 intersection. There, Farrell said, the plan is for an upscale mixed-use development with retail, restaurants, offices, hotel and apartments.

“The beauty about the 115 acres,” he said, “is that it has a lake and creeks that run through it. The topography there is surprising. Some of the banks are 15 feet above the water.”

The plan is to put pedestrian paths along the creek, he said.

The property still needs to be rezoned and most of the details have not been worked out. But Farrell said the plan is definitely upscale with no big box stores planned.

OAKLEAF

I’ve gotten a few calls from people asking about the theater that was announced for Oakleaf Station in May. Construction was supposed to start this summer with opening early next year.

Nothing has happened.

Frank DeMarsh, president of Epic Theaters, says the theater is still coming. It’s in the permit phase and construction should begin in early January with opening nine months after that.

The plan has been reduced from 14 to 12 screens, he said, because of the size of the site.

H&M will open a clothing store in the Oaks Mall in Gainesville next spring.

A Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen has opened in the TravelCenters of America at the County Road 210 exit on Interstate 95.

PERMITS

12901 Flagler Center Blvd., new office and warehouse for Ja-Ru, $12,781,151, 352,677 square feet, Infinity Design Builders. The toy company is consolidating its headquarters and warehouse in a new building. It paid $3 million for 22 acres in 2012.

Davis Development of Atlanta paid $3.18 million for 14.6 acres next to the Atlantic North shopping center at Atlantic and Kernan boulevards. The company is already building a 290-unit apartment complex on other land it purchased from Sleiman Enterprises, developers of Atlantic North. But an employee said no decision has been made about what will be done with the most recent purchase.

Flagler Vision LLC of Jacksonville bought two properties in the Flagler Center area, paying $1,513,162 for a portion of a 42-acre parcel of vacant land on Flagler Center Boulevard at Old St. AugustineRoad and paying $832,837 for a 3.8-acre parcel next to it on Old St. Augustine Road.

Jacksonville Clinic Medical Plaza paid $6.45 million for a 57,000-square-foot office building at 7011 A.C. Skinner Parkway. It was built in 2000.